Have you ever wondered what happens to all the information that is generated by computers as they log the activities of users doing things? Every click, every command, every application interaction and every error is recorded as these actions occur. Sometimes these “events” figuratively do go on a road to nowhere… they just sit unanalyzed on a server somewhere waiting to fill up the disk with their eventual growth. The answer to the first sentence is that the information lies in these stacks of data, and that is a problem. As soon as you say problem — here comes software to the…

I’m going to stray slightly from the teaching aspect of my blogs to some recent revelations in the technology industry, specifically regarding multi-factor authentication (MFA). Unfortunately, this technology has become necessary for the everyday person, not just for businesses. I say “unfortunately” because it usually creates extra hurdles for end users that they would rather not deal with every time they want to check their email or Twitter account. First, I’m going to give you a small sampling of what problems we face, how we address it and then share the scary part that even extremely experienced folks may not realize. The World…

If you’re like me, you’ve been hearing the phrase, “the cloud is coming” for years before you ever learned that winter was too. I never read any of the books, which first came out in 1996, so it wasn’t until the Game of Thrones TV series started in 2011 that I first heard the phrase “winter is coming.” So, when did I start hearing of the cloud’s inevitability? For me, the “cloud” started when people began insisting that it didn’t really exist, like Oracle’s Larry Ellison did back in 2008. And I distinctly remember thinking that ‘ol Larry had a point….

I have personally been on Yahoo email since it was released in 1997 (almost 20 years!). I remember how cool it was to have an email address that would live independently from my school, work and ISP accounts. This was especially cool because I lived in Silicon Valley and all three of those emails tended to change every few years. I have been a loyal user of Yahoo mail even when seemingly better or more popular alternatives were available (Gmail, AOL, me.com, Hotmail, etc.). Well, today is the day that I may finally consider making the move to another service. Turns out…

Today Apple released macOS Sierra and once again Centrify has ensured that our customers are ready to embrace the new release and its exciting new features with day one support. Centrify’s day one support for Sierra is effective across the entire product line, including our Centrify Identity Service, Centrify Express for Mac and Centrify Express for Mac Smart Card offerings. In addition to supporting the latest macOS release, Centrify has also provided day one support for the recently released iOS 10 update. With support for both of the new releases from Apple our customers can rest assured that they can take…

Snowden Movie Night Oliver Stone has brought “Snowden” to the big screen. Blimey. I’d finally stopped culling my social networks to the bone, put Mr. Robot hoodies in a box in the garage and stopped checking behind the shower curtain before getting in. Oh well. With hindsight and better insight, let’s reflect on some steps the government could take to mitigate this kind of situation happening again. In this blog, though, for a change, I’m going to start with the human angle instead of diving headlong into the technology. I want to highlight first the “people” in “people, process and…

Hackers are after you. Not just “you” as a consumer using your devices to shop. Not just “you” as an employee accessing your company network, e-mail or applications. They are after you. The more they know and can readily find out about you, the easier it is to impersonate you for purposes of further compromise. One of the most common ways this happens is through social engineering — psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. Social engineering has been around for a long time; in fact, one of the earliest examples cited was the original Trojan Horse made of wood! However,…

One of my first consultant jobs involved installing agents on Unix servers, a procedure which required root access. I still remember the first time I was onsite at a military base to help a customer install the software because it was also my first experience with a physical vault that stored computer passwords. When it came time to enter in the root credentials, my client made a phone call, and then this other person comes in from down the hall, opens up a wall safe using a memorized combination and pulls out a folder. This person verifies my client’s badge…

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s announcement of proposed new and far-reaching regulations to protect New York State banks, financial institutions and insurance companies against escalating threat of cyberattacks is both timely and imperative. The regulation requires institutions to establish and maintain a cybersecurity program designed to protect consumers and ensure the safety and soundness of New York’s financial services industry. The proposal is a landmark initiative to elevate the security posture and preparedness of New York’s thousands of financial institutions in combatting cyber-crime through a cybersecurity program that performs five core functions: Identification of cyber risks. Implementation of policies and procedures…

What Happened: A Russian cyber espionage group known by the name of Tsar Team, also calling itself Fancy Bear, were successful in illegally hacking the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) database was accessed using a compromised account provided to the International Olympic Committee for the Rio 2016 Games. A release by WADA indicates, “While it is an evolving situation, at present, we believe that access to ADAMS was obtained through spear phishing of email accounts.” Olivier Niggli, Director General, WADA states, “WADA has been informed by law enforcement authorities that these attacks are originating…

Centrify CEO Tom Kemp, an industry expert in security and infrastructure software, discusses market and technology issues around the disruption occurring in the Identity and Access Management market due to the cloud, mobile and consumerization of IT trends occurring in today's IT environment.